A piece of the Haunted Mansion queue that has been part of the Magic Kingdom experience since the park opened in 1971 has gone missing. It’s unclear whether it’s been relocated or removed for good.
A Familiar Gravestone Is Gone
WDWNT reported on July 19 that the removal of construction walls in the Haunted Mansion queue at Walt Disney World Resort — barriers that had been in place since earlier this year — revealed a rearranged graveyard with one notable absence. The headstone for “a man named Martin,” which for decades occupied a spot at the back of the graveyard area behind the iron fence near the entrance to the Haunted Mansion foyer, is no longer there.
Whether the stone has been moved to a section of the queue still concealed behind construction walls or removed from the attraction entirely hasn’t been confirmed. Its epitaph — “The lights went out on this old spark” — was just one of the many puns in a queue celebrated for morbid wordplay.
The reshuffling didn’t stop there. Uncle Theodore’s headstone now sits in approximately the same position Martin’s stone once occupied. A tall, round headstone for Cousin Algernon has also appeared nearby — both monuments having been shifted forward from earlier positions in the queue. The arrival of those two stones also pushed the monument for “Our Dreamy Dorothea” a few feet closer to the foyer entrance.
The surrounding monuments — Cousin Huet, Wathel R. Bender, Madame Carlotta, and Madame Renatta — appear to be in their original positions, as does the cluster of graves on the right side of the queue that includes Good Old Fred, Brother Claude, and Madame Leota.
The Renovation Driving the Changes
The Haunted Mansion has been undergoing a months-long exterior refurbishment connected in part to the construction of Piston Peak National Park in Frontierland. Early planning for the Cars (2006)-inspired expansion indicates that portions of the Haunted Mansion’s previously backstage exterior will become visible to Magic Kingdom Park guests once the new land opens — making the ongoing work on the attraction’s facade and surrounding queue areas more significant than a standard touch-up.
Earlier this month, as construction walls came down from other parts of the attraction, a repainted cupola finished in dark green, matching other details on the Haunted Mansion facade, was revealed. Work continues in parts of the queue, with wooden boards still covering sections of the concrete path leading to the foyer doors as crews work beneath them overnight.
The Haunted Mansion continues to operate normally throughout all of this activity and shows no signs of a planned temporary closure.
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